Saitama (Japan)

A few days ago, I promised you a detailed opinion about Japan Men’s Volleyball team.
After the very bad Japanese defeat against Australia, I try to articulate my opinion starting from two episodes.

*However my view doesn’t depend only on today’s match.

In the last eighteen years, in Japan I attended many Press Conferences after the matches as players and also as reporter.
Each time, Japanese journalists ask very specific questions. They are eager to understand the different tactical or technical reasons, comprehending thoroughly the small distinctions .
“Why that player makes two little hops just before receiving and then he passes with the right foot in front. Or why that spiker gives a weird glimpse on left and then he hits on right.” - just the same for tactical  questions - “did the coach plan the tactic of the match evaluating the attacking average on rotation P3?”.
Those usually are the media’s too detailed queries.
Many times the “Gaijin” coaches (in Japanese Gaijin means foreigner) look at each other astonished. They cannot answer because they don’t consider crucial nor significant those small details.

The second memory belongs to soccer.

In the 2002 World Soccer Championship host in Japan and Korea, Arthur Antunes Coimbra (better known as Zico, the former Brazilian footballer) coached Japanese soccer team. During every training his players kept asking what they had to do: “where we have to go when our team mates are there, how we have to kick if the ball is bouncing” and so on.
Worn out by too many questions, once he screamed: “quit questioning and play soccer!”
The reaction was a long lasting silence and many shocked expressions.
All the players simultaneously said: “what does ‘play’ mean? We must know exactly what we have to do, playing doesn’t mean nothing!”

…and now let me quote from the book “The Japanese mind” (2002 p. 132)

"…when we look at traditional Japanese arts, all of them seem highly formal. All of them have their formal patterns which are learnt by watching and imitating the teacher and they all have their own complicated rules and conventions which must be learnt.
Moreover, in many modern sports and hobbies in Japan, we find exactly the same attitude. This way of learning, which emphasizes rules, technique and imitation, has long been highly suitable for the quick assimilation and adaptation of foreign elements from China and the West into Japanese culture."

Needn’t to say that Japanese adaptation and imitating talents are remarkable. Those skills were very useful in economic and industrial growth but in all the sports (Volleyball included), Japanese cannot just follow the teacher or the master. Improvisation (avoiding any unnecessary exaggeration) is an essential value in any sport competitions.
Furthermore, the lack of improvisation isn’t the only reason of the second class Japanese Volleyball level. I think that Japanese coaches fail to identify properly the most important skills to improve.

Japanese players have fine fundamentals technique playing at certain level, but those skills drop quickly when facing teams physically stronger.
Japanese National teams can rely on an excellent dig and a fair reception but their blocking, attacking and setting systems are inappropriate.
They never succeed making a well structured block. Moreover, the opponent quick attacks (mainly in the middle of the net) take advantage of the missing cooperation among the three front row players.
In attack they continue to set high and slow ball much easier to block for other teams. Though their setter have a good setting touch, they don’t achieve a coherent distribution based on adversaries weak points.

Last but not least, I didn’t see any relevant changes in Japanese game system since many years.
This is the biggest problem, because if they don’t find the right way to enhance their performances as soon as possible, they risk to dissipate the wonderful Japanese fans enthusiasm.

Bye bye andrea zorzi